Last weekend Jose and his brother — who happily surprised us with a visit while their mom was already here — finally put together the playhouse the girls got as a birthday present last fall. It arrived right before we moved, and got put in the back of the garage, and on and on and on. Anyway, 6+ months later it is finally put together and as one would expect, the girls LOVE it. It’s already gotten a lot of use in only a week thanks to the lovely weather we’ve been having. We’ll see how their enthusiasm fares when the heat arrives, eh?

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I got up to run on Wednesday morning for the first time since the time change, and I hadn’t anticipated that it would now be darker again! I stick fairly close to home on early runs and my neighborhood is reasonably well lit, but the sidewalks can be pretty uneven. If it’s rained recently, the sidewalks can also be pretty slippery due to dirt and mildew. For these reasons, I usually run in the street but with the return to darker mornings (for now) I’ve got to be more careful and make sure I’m as visible as possible. I’ve got an LED slap bracelet that I bought myself as a stocking stuffer in December, so I wear that. I wear a white or brightly colored shirt too. But I’m thinking it may be time to invest in a couple neon shirts or maybe a reflective vest. Those of you who are runners — any suggestions?

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I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this already, but I’ve started coming home for lunch once or twice a week if my schedule allows it. It’s the best! I can get home, enjoy a break in the middle of the day, and get back to my desk in about 45 minutes. Yesterday I took part of this strawberry cream pie — made with the fruits of our strawberry picking outing, of course — back with me to share with my coworkers, so they benefit from my lunch breaks too! (Ha.)

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We are closing on the sale of our old house a week from today. Yaaaaaay! I realized yesterday that there are still a few things in the garage that we need to pick up (or just throw away) this weekend so that’s on the agenda for tomorrow. But otherwise, everything’s been smooth sailing so far — the inspection only turned up a few really minor things and the appraisal came back as expected. I am SO EXCITED to get this house-selling experience behind us!

Well, we are all finally happy and healthy again — for the moment, anyway. Jose recovered from the cold he picked up right after whatever flu-like bug we both had, and Charlotte finished up another round of antibiotics for an ear infection. The good news is that now that she’s got ear tubes, all the nasty gunk was able to drain out of her ear! (And despite the gross-factor of that, it really is a good thing.) We went back to the ENT last week for a follow-up on the tubes and all is well. They also re-tested her hearing and saw improvement. No more fluid back there means she can hear better! Yay!

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I’m looking forward to a nice weekend, even though the forecast is calling for rain. Jose’s mom arrives tomorrow morning for a long visit, and his cousin Peggy and her family decided to make an impromptu trip up here for a couple nights to kick off their spring break.

Next week is spring break for the Houston area schools too, and in recent years that’s meant that things at work slow way down. A lot of meetings are cancelled, and a lot of people take time off — whether they’ve got kids or not. On one hand, I’m looking forward to a slow week to get caught up on several things I haven’t been able to clear off my work plate yet. On the other hand, slow weeks can feel very loooooong. I may take some time off myself. We’ll see.

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The option period on the sale of our old house ended on Wednesday, so we are truly under contract now and still on track for closing at the end of the month. YAY!!! There are still so many things that have to fall into place, including the sale of our buyer’s current home, which is also under contract. (Our buyer will sell his old house in the morning, and buy our house that afternoon.) The whole thing makes me nervous, but I’m going to keep assuming that things will go well.

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It’s flex Friday and I’m about to head out for a run. I’ve been going to Orange Theory once a week as planned, and I always take a walk with Charlotte on the weekend if the weather is good, but my running in the last month has been intermittent — once or twice per week at best. I signed up for the Yuri’s Night 10K in a month and while I won’t be setting any PRs there (not even close), I do need to get more consistent between now and then.

Our old house is back on the market today after a week of “freshening up.” On the advice of our new realtor, we set a budget of $1,000 and used that to fix up a few things. First, I had a landscaper we’ve used several times before come back and clean up the beds, which hadn’t been touched since September. Second, we bit the bullet and had the living room, dining room and bonus room painted back to their original “builder beige.” I have to admit that from a buyer’s point of view, it looks better this way — fresher and cleaner and simpler.

Finally, we had an appraiser measure the house to confirm what the livable square footage is. We had one number from when we built it, but the county had a lower number. The difference was about 150 square feet but at the average going rate in this area of $100 per square foot, that’s a price difference of more than $15,000! Our previous realtor gave us poor advice on several accounts, but this is the one I’m most upset about — I brought up this discrepancy multiple times and she blew me off. In retrospect this was a huge red flag, but I didn’t realize it at the time. The good news is that yesterday’s measurement came back at the higher square footage which will justify our re-listing price. (We’re re-listing it at the same price it was already at as of a week ago.)

Owning this house for longer than I planned has made it start to feel like a ball and chain. But being over there a couple times this week reminded me that it really is a nice house. We spent a great 7 years living there. And as much as I want to now be rid of it, I also hope that whoever buys it will have some really good years there too.

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This is the first day since Monday that I’ve felt like a normal human being. Both Jose and I came down with the same flu-like crud this week — at the same time we had to deal with the flurry of house stuff. Joy. Neither of us can remember ever being sick at the exact same time before, and it was no fun. We both stayed home from work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yesterday he went in for a bit but came home still feeling lousy, and I stayed home and did a bit of telework as I felt up to it.

A couple “free” days with your spouse would normally be a good thing, but we spent them basically moving from the couch to the bed to the couch again watching mindless TV and napping. The girls seems to have avoided it thus far — and thank goodness for that, since it meant they could still go to daycare. If one or both of them had had to stay home sick…well, that would’ve been pretty awful all around.

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A couple weeks ago I moved all the plastic kid cups and plates from a high cabinet down to a lower one so that Emma can get all her own stuff. But now — you guessed it — Charlotte’s favorite thing to do is take the plates out one by one, followed by the cups one by one, followed by the bowls one by one. At least it keeps her entertained for a few minutes, right?

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I saw this little notepad at Barnes & Noble on Monday and I now officially have a new mantra. Mom is Wow upside down. Ha! I didn’t buy it…but I should have.

The past couple weeks at work have been a doozy and I’ve had to spend several evenings catching up from home. Working in the evening means no time for sewing — or blogging, as you might have noticed — so I’m happy that this hectic period is wrapping up. Not having free time to myself in the evening starts to get really old really fast.

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I did manage to stay on top of all things Valentines — making treats for Charlotte to give to her friends, helping Emma put together and sign her cards, helping her decorate a shoebox to be her “mailbox,” and making little gifts for Charlotte’s teachers. I even stopped by Kroger on the way home that day to get some chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert because there’s nothing like the last minute, right? (I avoided the “Valentine Day Express” tent in the parking lot on principle, even though I was definitely pursuing an express item. Ha!)

For Emma’s “mailbox,” I just covered a shoebox in wrapping paper and let her cover it with stickers and sharpie scribbles. Later, I saw pictures from the Valentines class party and let’s just say that some people went wayyyy overboard with their mailboxes. Come on, fellow parents! Can’t we all just take it down a notch??

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I’ve been doing pretty well with my February goal of logging 10,000 steps per day on my Fitbit. I’ve made that goal on 12 of 15 days so far. I missed it on both Mondays and this past Wednesday and it was entirely because having to work in the evening prevented me from going for a walk or run. (And running in place while brushing your teeth only gets you so far!)

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It’s been almost 6 months and we still haven’t sold our old house…and this week we decided to part ways with our realtor. Honestly, the person I’m most annoyed with is myself for not switching sooner. In retrospect, it’s clear that we stuck with her a couple months longer than we should have. Anyway, we had already lined up a new agent who has already been more communicative and given us more helpful advice than the old one did, and I’m optimistic that we’ll get it sold soon. It’s off the market this week while we spruce up a couple small things and have new photos taken. It should be back on the market by next Friday and fingers/toes/everything crossed we’ll get a good offer shortly after that.

Hello!

I'm Sarah, a NASA engineer by day and quilter by night. I live in Houston with my husband and our two young daughters. I've had this ol' blog for more than 15 years, and these days it's home to my quilting work, snippets of family life, and occasional musings on my engineering career.